Day 4 - 26 November 2008

Yesterday we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The journey to the Cu Chi Tunnels was long and tiring. During the long bus trip, the tour guide shared with us the history of Vietnam. However, most of us were tired and slept on the bus. The tour guide tried to keep us awake by playing games with us. The loser would have to sing a song for us in order to keep us awake.

Billy is a humorous local guide who just joined us.

The whole trip took around one and a half hour. Once we had reached the place, we walked through a pathway and it led us to a hut where we watched a short clip about how the Cu Chi Tunnels came about. After that, we walked around and the tour guide showed us the traps that are built during the war days A meeting room.

You don't want to fall in the centre of this trap!

There is a grass platform at ground level that rotates 360 degrees. Stepping on it can be fatal. There is no need to prove it.

Another trap devised by the Vietcongs.

Mr Siva inspects the entrance of a tunnel to be sure it is safe for entry.

Mdm J is getting out of the entrance. It is confirmed safe to enter the tunnel.

There were many traps set up to kill the US soldiers. We personally felt that the traps were very cruel and we could imagine how the soldiers felt when they were killed. As we reached the middle of the trail, we took a break for 5 minutes. We could hear the loud sounds of the rifles, where tourists could try shooting by just paying a few Vietnam dongs for the bullets. We then moved on to see how rice wine and rice papers were made by processing rice.

The lady is preparing rice papers to be packed and sold to tourists visiting the Tunnels.

Finally we reached the entrance of the ‘real’ Cu Chi Tunnels. There were 3 different lengths of the Cu Chi Tunnels that we could enter; 20m, 60m and 100m. Thinking that 100m was a very short distance and we could easily walk through it, we decided to take on the challenge.

Entering a tunnel, not knowing what to expect.

However it was not what we expected, the tunnel was around half of our height and it was so small that we could not turn left or right. It was dark, hot and stuffy with lights only after a certain distance. All of us began to have second thoughts about how easy we could get through the tunnels. Then, we all thought that we could not continue anymore as it was too hot and stuffy, even just that short distance already wore us out and caused us to sweat a lot. Therefore, we then took the nearest exit out which concluded that we only managed to complete 60m of the tunnels.

The tunnel is pretty small and short. Those who are taller wish they were shorter.

Alexis is taking extra precaution as she climbs out of the exit of the tunnel.

Last, we went to see the kitchen and the dining room for the Vietcong people. Along the way back to the bus, we walked past some souvenir shops. The most interesting one was selling sandals made from tyres of vehicles. Most of us bought the mini ones as key chains.
A group photo in front of an old tank destroyed by a land mine.

After buying the souvenirs, we went for our buffet lunch. Next, we stopped by a lacquer shop that made paintings which are for sale. We learnt about the procedures of making the lacquered paintings. Then, we proceeded to our next destination, the Dieu Giac Orphanage.

When we arrived, we could see the kids smiling as they were happy to see us. All the kids started to run about happily. However, there was one young boy that actually secreted faeces upon seeing us. He stood there aimlessly, not knowing what to do next. We supposed that he was so excited that he secreted faeces without even realizing it. We carried out the activities, designing the photo frames and t-shirts, followed by two ice-breaking games.

The children are definitely having a whale of a time.

This time round, the activities were more organized compared to the ones carried out the day earlier and all the student leaders were on task. The kids also cooperated well with us. There were older kids aging 13 years old and above. They were very caring and knowing that there was a language barrier, they helped us to gather the kids and settle them down.

Before we left the orphanage, we gave out all the presents that we had bought for them. Seeing the broad and wide smiles on their faces made us feel elated too. Although we were only able to bring joy and happiness to the kids for a couple of hours, we were already delighted enough.

A memorable photo in front of the Dieu Giac Orphanage before we leave.

Lastly, we headed for our hotel and had our dinner. We ended our day with a meaningful and exhausted experience.

(Reflection was done by Clara Woon of 3/2 and Regina Tan of 3/4)